Meet Our Rockstars

STEVE JENKINS

When Fairway’s Master Cheesemonger Steve Jenkins joined the Fairway family, he was an out-of-work stage actor with five years of experience behind the counter at a New York City specialty food retailer. Steve was the only serious cheesemonger in town and had earned his place as a certified MaitreFromager. He surveyed how Fairway was displaying their cheeses – it was just like everyone else, people who didn’t yet know the intricacies behind caring for cheese, presenting cheese, giving it the opportunity to taste the best it could. Jenkins dove right in, absorbing the tricks of the trade and bringing them to life at the Fairway cheese counter.

He has been an intensely influential driving force behind the state of the artisanal cheese industry in the United States today. By the mid-1990's, he had amassed such deep and passionate knowledge on the subject that he published one of the most highly regarded manuscripts of the cheese industry. Cheese Primer, unleashed in 1996, will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about cheese, and then some, the way that only Steve could tell it. Cheese Primer won the James Beard Award and was nominated for the Julia Child Award of the International Association of Culinary Professionals. It is often referred to as the single-most indispensable book in the world of cheese. Jenkins is not only an integral part of the food world, but is a part of the fuel that continues to create change and educate the future of the industry.

PETER ROMANO

Fairway’s produce expert Peter Romano, started at Fairway in 1977. However Fairway was not the start of Peter’s experience with fresh fruits and vegetables. That happened many years before on his family’s farm just outside of Palermo, Italy. Peter’s father put him to work at the ripe old age of 6, picking grapes and stone fruit. The lessons he learned – how to recognize and handle the highest quality produce – are the methods by which he has grown Fairway’s produce operation into the success that it is today. It has been said that Peter has fruit running through his veins. Though we have never been able to confirm this medically, we absolutely believe it.

Peter and his team, which includes his son Anthony, meet the delivery trucks every single day at 5 a.m. They also frequently visit local farms and suppliers. They are fanatical about the product that ultimately makes it into our stores, and would never sell our customers anything that they wouldn’t bring home to their own families. The combination of this rigorous practice and listening to our customers is the formula that has enabled Fairway to have the biggest produce department per store in the industry without sacrificing freshness or quality.

BENNY LANFRANCO

Benny Lanfranco has been with the Fairway family since 2005, but coffee has almost always been a part of his life. When Benny was just 13 years old, he started working on his neighbor’s coffee farm in the Dominican Republic. He quickly became fascinated with the process, and ever since, it became his passion to provide top-quality, carefully-grown coffee beans to coffee drinkers around the world. It is this enthusiasm that brought Benny and Fairway together to develop our coffee department into what it is today. And as Fairway’s Master Roaster, he is the expert behind our premises-roasted fresh coffee and our practice of using only superior beans.

When you come into Fairway Market and see those wonderful barrels filled to the brim with all shades of shiny, smooth, brown beans, it’s Benny who brought them to you. He communicates with the farmers who scrutinize the weather, the soil, the air, and the water, and then send Benny and his team every small batch of newly harvested beans. He then inspects the samples, looking at them, smelling them, and tasting them (sipping with a coffee spoon – yes, there’s a special spoon!), making sure it meets his high expectations before it can exceed yours.

MITCHEL LONDON

Mitchel London brings his unique culinary style to classic dishes as Chef de Cuisineat Fairway Café and Steakhouse at the Upper West Side store in NYC. Before joining Fairway, Mitchel was Mayor Ed Koch's official chef at Gracie Mansion for seven years, and for more than 20 years, he and his wife Carmela have run their own takeout shops and a catering business. Originally from Philadelphia, Mitchel actually began cooking as a teenager – on his mother’s recommendation, no less -- when he was living in Israel. Thank you, Mom! Or today, we wouldn’t get to enjoy London’s scrumptious seasonal and Fairway-forward menu that highlights all the great hits from the market like our prime dry-aged beef and fresh-produce salads, like the Boston lettuce. You can also get his recipes and cooking tips, which he shares on FairwayMarket.com, as well as on LX.TV’s 1st Lookand WOR Radio’s Joan Hamburg Show, where he’s a regular guest with Fairway fourth generation founding family member Dan Glickberg.

CAPTAIN TONY MALTESE

Fairway doesn’t just have a seafood expert who runs its fish department. We have a life-long NYS DEC-licensed commercial fisherman and licensed Coast Guard Captain! His name is Captain Tony Maltese, and he has been a part of the Fairway family since 2001. Through his expertise -- ingrained in him by years of hands-on experience – our selection of seafood is a marvelous sight. It’s displayed in open cases on ice for customers to closely look at before pointing to their pick of the day. And it sure is one fresh catch. On a daily basis, Captain Tony heads to the docks. He works his way among steely fishermen like himself to compete with private fish markets to be the first for his fresh-fish inventory. With his check-list for all of the Fairway Market locations at his side, Captain Tony begins his ritual – he digs in and picks up the first fish with his bare hands, feels its weight, and holds it up to his nose, checking for quality. Because he loves what he sells, you’ll find both top sellers and the items Captain Tony wants his loyal customers to experience for the first time. So from razor clams and cockles to steamers and littlenecks and from salmon and bass to Hawaiian fish and dried cod, Captain Tony will always give you your go-to choices to more adventurous or seasonal options, and will provide it all at reasonable prices.

RAY VENEZIA

Born and raised in New Jersey, Fairway’s Master Butcher Ray Venezia became a butcher right out of high school. With two generations of butchers before him, he was born into the craft, but with an innate passion and talent for the calling, he took to it with a fierce focus and commitment by beginning with an apprenticeship under his uncle when he was 18-years-old. Throughout his career, he has revived the lost art of butchery wherever he has worked. And when Fairway was lucky enough to have Ray join its team of top food masters in 1997, he used that drive to carry on the legacy in each of Fairway’s Butcher Shops. He’s held true to very high standards in an industry that has sadly put quantity over quality – that’s what makes Ray and Fairway stand out above other markets. Fairway’s stores provide more than meat departments – they provide Butcher Shops, where the best cuts of meat are available, offered fresh daily, and cut and ground on premises. Ray even selects the dry-aged cuts of beef himself! And he trains his team members to be as exacting as he is, offering top-notch, personalized service from cutting to order to providing cooking suggestions.

PAUL WEINER

Only a man who walks the walk as much as he can talk the talk could be head of Fairway’s Organic and Natural Foods Department, and that person is Paul Weiner. Not only is he extensively knowledgeable on everything his department stocks, but he lives a healthy lifestyle, and is a particular Fairway customer himself – you should see him shop, scrutinizing every package and ingredient label before putting it into his basket. He visits the farms, and will even tap maple syrup himself, all in the effort to make sure Fairway’s customers are getting premium, pure products they can feel good about eating. This combination makes him a zealous seeker of the best brand names, tastes, prices, and latest innovations and trends in the organic and natural industry. Paul has been with the Fairway family since 1998, and with his leadership, the growth of our organic and natural foods, gluten-free products, and health and beauty aids has truly flourished. Fairway has thousands – yes, THOUSANDS! – ofthese products, in every variety you can ever want and imagine. You can thank Paul for that kind of superb service!